As the hazy fog from the dream began to clear from her mind's eye a groan escaped her. It's not enough that she was a teenager with female hormones to contend with, but now she had to fence with very romantic dreams where the face of the man was skillfully hidden. Yet, she knew the male at least that was the feeling she got, and that the shadows were only partially hiding his identity so she would get it together and figure it out. A rough feeling of heat flooded through her in memory and another groan tore from her throat. Usagi couldn't help the soft swear, because she was too innocent and young to truly curse, no matter what her thick head teammate said.
Speaking of teammates, this was probably a prank played on her by said teammate. After all the stupid Uchiha boy was a master at genjutsu as he had already awaken his Sharingan. A full body blush ran rampant over her skin while remembering vague pieces of her dream, this was distracting for a budding genin near chunin, and she wanted to be a respected kunoichi. Heat was emanating from key points on her body, and at least she could feel thankful that she wasn't dreaming of the pale Uchiha like all the rest. No, in her dream the man had tan skin, not a heavy tan, but more a soft cinnamon, and calloused fingers on strong hands. Usagi quickly push those thoughts away, no matter what her mother said about these types of dreams being normal, it was terribly distracting. Pulling at her nightshirt she tossed it casually to the side and meandered over to the chest of drawers. Normally she would shower after training, but she was sweaty from being to hot, her bedroom seemed too small as her thoughts drifted and figured it was safer just to shower.
Usagi was still early to team training, of course her Uchiha teammate was ever earlier gloomily haunting one of the trees on the field. She shook her head and set to her dance kata that was to help with her flexibility, truly she just felt relaxed afterwards. When her jounin sensei had suggested ballet for a past time, she nearly smacked him in distaste, as she saw it as a slur against her abilities as a ninja. Then again she understood where the superior mind frame comes from, after all the classes for kunoichi were ridiculous at best, really flower arranging had no real bearing in her chosen career. None the less, the mind frame itself did nothing to encourage the females to become well rounded ninja or even to participate past genin-hood. So, her response to her jounin sensei suggestion was not unfounded, but Usagi had lucked out and had actually gotten a teacher that believed in equality and being the best no matter the sex. Patiently he explained that flexibility came easier to females then males and she should have reached for that, after all it was hard to hit a target that bends in unusual ways. Her Uchiha teammate however, did not get off as lucky; his sarcastic and egotist comment had him nursing a very red mark on his cheek for two hours.
While ballet enhanced her balance and flexibility, so much so that she was getting a few glares from the rather frosty Hyuuga genin, it did not do much for sculpture or reflexes. This led her further into the dance arts, stumbling into modern dance and such gave her body a starting foundation, now if only they could find a Taijutsu style that would fit her. Gymnastics followed a close second, making her body like rubber, or at least the beginning of untouchable; she still had a long way to go. However, if her ninja career fell through she had a safety net to fall back on, and her mother praised the fact that she was finally becoming graceful. Her latest lesson though, in the dance field had her blushing lightly, sure it made her backbone slip like a cat's, but it was embarrassing, she could never imagine belly dancing in public. These thoughts circled through her as the wind whipped past her planted hips, and cooled her bared waist. Small ankle weights caught the light as Usagi twirled once more and brought her feet to terra firma. She heard her Uchiha teammate huff slightly along with the loud praise from her other male teammate to which she gave a smile. Clapping distracted Usagi from her teammates to turn to her team leader.
"I see you took my suggestion to heart." Her jounin sensei spoke and Usagi bowed lightly with a blush.
"Hai sensei." She muttered and was surprised when he tilted her head back up.
"I've found styles for all of you now." He informed his team and two cheers and a proud smirk were his answers. "Now, the styles I myself have no practice in so you will be training with others today." The jounin informed them and they nodded in sync.
Jiraiya sighed as his team completely ignored him for the thirty-second time that morning, and it was only the first hour of their meeting. The blond manic punched his teammate to initiate the efforts that could be called a spar even though there was no finesse out of beating each into the ground. Sighing again he smacked his two male subordinates, and wondered again how Sarutobi-sensei managed to get him to teach. Shrugging lightly at his thoughts he scanned over his team, the future of the sennin and the legacy that goes with being team seven, and shook his head, how did this fall on him? Orochimaru would have been better suited to tame these young minds for the future, but he did not see the potential in the no-names and instead took an apprentice. Though Jiraiya found it immensely funny that the snake man chose a girl for his apprentice, heh, Orochimaru was more perverted then he thought.
His musing was interrupted by a trio of new voices, realizing that their new training mates had just crested the hill, Jiraiya perked up, finally a way to distract the brats that wasn't reliant on d-ranked missions. "Oi, brats, straighten up, we've got company." Jiraiya informed them while rubbing his red marks with a sly smirk.
"What are you up to, you old pervert?" The blond hell raiser inquired while kindly stepping on Jiraiya's foot.
"Never going to be Hokage with that kind of attitude." Jiraiya mumbled under his breath, but straightened none the less. "Hey Dan, are these your brats?" He inquired while looking over the trio, he snorted when he caught sight of the baleful glare on the Uchiha, clan-oriented shinobi tend to not mix well with no-names. His eyes widen when he caught sight of the blond girl and smirked at the jounin. "Didn't know you and Tsunade-hime went that far already." He ribbed and was glared at for his troubles.
"Introduce yourselves." Dan ordered while his genin stepped up to the sennin's group.
"Kenami, Iiya." One of the males stated with a small bow.
"Uchiha, Kenshiki." The Uchiha muttered daring them to speak out against him.
"Tsukino, Usagi." Introduced herself with a large friendly smile. "A pleasure to meet you." She added, much more welcoming to new friends then the others.
Jiraiya's group quickly introduce themselves as well, even if there was a small spat between the two kunoichi in reference to the Uchiha before Dan's kunoichi huffed and asked to spar. "Minato, you spar with the girl." Jiraiya ordered while visibly restraining his kunoichi from wanting to pound Usagi for her flippant comment or jump the Uchiha.
"Ah, why do I have to spar with her?" Minato, the blond questioned, with a small simper. Now Minato didn't believe that females were weaker, in fact he had seen enough beatings on his sensei to prove otherwise, but he really wanted to test his mettle against the sulking Uchiha. His question however, was not received well by Usagi who kicked him belligerently in his stomach.
"I accept your challenge." She voiced darkly, and Minato couldn't be sure, but it looked like the sky above and behind her darkened menacingly. Trying to establish the true meaning of the question was impossible for the blond girl would hear nothing of it, and Minato suffered another heavy blow to his head. Having enough, he fell into his style of fighting and slipped on his fighting grin.
"Let's do this." He uttered and together they knocked fists, blocked each other's kicks, and dodged mimicking each one's move.
Their spar was still going on while the others had all ready finished theirs. It would have lasted longer, as both were now having fun, had the kunoichi on Minato's team not made a comment. "Heh, figures the weakling couldn't even beat the moron." She snipped, while Minato paused and bowed his head Usagi snapped back.
"At least I can go toe-to-toe with a shinobi, you lost in two minutes, and your teammate could probably beat you with his eyes closed." She yelled, and offered a hand to the blond boy. "What do you say we call this a draw for now and get some lunch?" She inquired, and Minato nodded with a gentile smile.
Usagi chuckled a bit at the catchy grin while the two adults looked on, and Jiraiya itching to retrieve his pad and pen where he had stashed it. The future was looking mighty bright for these two, but Dan glared over catching his thought process and then smiled as his eyes caught sight of his hime. Too bad he didn't get to greet her first, as Usagi threw all manner of proper out the window and leapt at the blond woman.
"Tsunade-sama, are you going to teach us too?" Usagi inquired while hugging the blond about the waist and grinning at the dark haired girl beside the woman. "Hi Shizune, how are you?" Usagi asked while unwinding from the Slug Summoner and hugging Shizune instead.
"Maa, we will see brat, has your chakra control improved?" Tsunade inquired while pecking Dan on the cheek.
"Lots and lots, I want to be just like you when I grow up." Usagi responded the two Sennin and one jounin frowned lightly at such an innocent response, before smiling in return.
"How about you just be better then me?" Tsunade pushed and Usagi grinned determinedly. Jiraiya muttered something about not needing another Tsunade especially since the girl was well on her way to becoming a woman all ready. Tsunade didn't miss the perverted connotations and just punched Jiraiya in the face sending the man flying. "All of you better not turn out anything like that man or I'll injure you in ways that will never heal." Tsunade warned and the young genin took that to heart as Tsunade was the leading medic.
"Maa, who wants to be like Ero-sennin anyway?" Minato mumbled but gave a wide grin. The rest of the genin agreed in various ways and then they were off for lunch, chuckling and chattering on various topics. A few steps away from the training grounds Jiraiya showed up looking healthy as a horse and nudged the blond Minato over, accidentally causing the youth to fall onto the blond girl. Smirking to himself he watched as the pair blushed, stammered and leapt far apart before Minato glared angrily at his sensei. Tsunade merely watched with a raised eyebrow before cackling silently and rubbing her hands together as she caught on to what Jiraiya had done. Dan and Shizune opted to move a little further away from the pair wondering once more for their own sanity. Lunch was an interesting affair as somehow Minato and Usagi had been seated by one another and of all things had gotten into an eating contest. While the other genin kunoichi made snide comments at the pair, who paid her no mind, the rest of the group just watched in surprise. Curiously they wondered where the pair actually put all that food before shrugging and playing a quick game of Ja Ken Po, to figure out who is actually paying for the two stomachs. Tsunade lost as destined and moaned as she pulled out her wallet only to be surprised as Minato slammed their share down.
"I lost so I pay, but watch your back, I'll get you back." Minato declared to the other blond who gave him a smirk, before knocking her knuckles against his.
"It is a deal, but I always win my challenges." Usagi declared and Minato smirked back while flipping his bangs up.
"So do I, and I don't plan to lose anytime in the near future." Minato responded, and the pair shared a nod. The rest of the shinobi and shinobi-in-training finished eating, laid their payment down, and all of them left to the training grounds once more.
This behavior lasted over several weeks becoming routine, the two blond genin challenge each other to just about anything, and scarily enough they always had an eating contest at lunch. Every time they would switch off winners, if Usagi won that day, then Minato would win the next, suffice it to say their teams never interrupted them, but they never did understand where exactly all that food went. It was an interesting and friendly rivalry between the pair, but the only thing they did not touch of the other's was their dreams. In fact they supported one another in their dreams, Usagi agreed that she could see him becoming Hokage easily, he loved his people, and Minato could see Usagi easily reaching the higher tiers of shinobi that was surprisingly sparse of Kunoichi. They just felt comfortable enough around each other to be close friends and rivals, too bad their friends never saw it that way. Jiraiya's genin kunoichi one day cornered her and reminded Usagi that males and females cannot actually be friends without strings attached. Usagi didn't understand what she had meant until the chunin exams came up and a team from Whirlpool showed up led by a fearsome red-headed woman.
Usagi flipped and turned in her bed as once more her dreams haunted her, and frustrated she leapt from dreams to waking. Creeping from her room she slipped out to the training grounds to dance away the heat in her stomach. Though for all her training she never noticed she was being watched by her best friend. Minato watched her move flawlessly through the steps looking for all the while a graceful princess instead of a trained Kunoichi. He had been dangerously honest with everything he had ever come across and his attention and attraction to his best friend was the same. Minato knew he was attracted to the blond, they were too comfortable with one another to not be, but he knew not how to gain the attention he wished. He had been born an orphan and somehow asking his sensei for help did not seem like such a bright idea. Oh he could just come right out and say it, but he was also a bit cautious for his best friend never seem to look at him like that, truth be told she hadn't seem to look at anyone like that. So, he was content to watch her now and ponder how he could fix his dilemma with his best friend. Usagi huffed lightly from her excursion as the dreams returned to torment her conscious, oh she knew who haunted her thoughts now, and it still didn't help. It was her best friend that she saw in her dreams, and she remember the blond male well enough from the academy she couldn't possibly believe that her conscious dare tell that she has had a crush on Minato since the academy. That would be impossible, he was her best friend, her rival, it was just hormones, she wasn't ready for any relationship, but darn he was cute that was slowly slipping into hot. Shaking her head, she picked up her discarded towel and wiped her brow while pushing her thoughts far from her, she had the chunin exams to concentrate on. After all Tsunade-sama had promised to train her once she became a chunin, and she was dead-set on getting training from her idol.
Team Jiraiya and Team Dan met on the road to the academy early the next morning subconsciously getting ready for their exams for rank. Each greeted each other in their own way including Usagi tossing an arm around Minato's shoulders and challenging him once more. Then without much forethought she pecked him on the cheek for good luck and bounded into the awaiting masses. Minato' s cheeks turned a surprise red while quickly following his team into the academy to begin the exam for chunin, and a thought of maybe having a chance with the blond girl kept him giddy all through the first test.
Immediately their teams were pulled apart and pushed into a separate room stating that there were spies among them and it was their job to find the imposter in their team. Though a rough and tumble team, Minato was easy to decipher that their team was without a spy and declared his answer to the evaluator who taunted him twice before agreeing that he was right and their team had passed. Team Jiraiya entered the room for those who had passed just in time to encounter the shaky form of Usagi and the unsettled form of Team Dan. Concerned he pulled his best friend over to the far wall while wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He inquired what happen and her team happened to have one of the spies so they were force to play dangerous games to figure out which one had been the imposter. Minato was surprised by some of the games they were forced to play and even more surprised that they had pulled out the Uchiha to pretend to be, then he realized they probably thought the prodigy filled clan would easily figure it out. He found himself hugging his best friend close and comforting her as he ground her teeth, but the honest truth there was little he could do for her other than offer comfort, after all she made the choice to be a kunoichi. Still, ignoring the growing amount of teams that passed he tightened his grip and whispered soothing sounds into Usagi's ear, he was in trouble; he passed crushing on the girl. Moments more were spent in an embrace before she stilled, gulped, straightened her back and stepped out of his hold. He was shocked once more when she kissed him once more the cheek for a thank you and hopped over to her team.
The second task was survival in the forest that Jiraiya-sensei tended to toss them into when Orochimaru-sama teased him. Since Team Dan normally trained with them the same could be said that they were quite familiar with the forest as well. So he did not have to much concern about them not passing, but as they were hunting for the required password that went with theirs to gain entrance to the tower they came across one of their allies injured teams. Though they were technically all opponents in the chunin exam, Konoha always looked after their allies if they had supplies to spare, so Minato led his team toward the downed Whirlpool team. Gently he turned the red-head on her side and bandaged the bleeding wound with care. He was met with a fiery gaze when he finished, but was concerned when her face turned red, he did not know she was blushing because of him. Recognizing her as the equivalent of the whirlpool's princess he made sure she was fine before hurrying to finish the exam, Bunny would enjoy hearing about another one of her idols. Glancing once more at the stubborn red-head, who was all ready standing on her feet, he shook his head and leapt away, yes Bunny would enjoy hearing of the Whirlpool's princess. He stopped a few hops away from the tower and wondered when he started calling Usagi Bunny? Wasn't that like a nickname that those who are close or dating normally give each other?
Minato shrugged his thoughts away as he and his team stumbled in and coded their password to the waiting jounin; he looked over to see Team Dan having a mock spar over the delicious food on the tables. The jounin nodded that the pass code was acceptable and granted them passage into to the tower. "Hey Bun, I mean Usagi, how did it go?" Minato inquired smoothing over his mistake, even if he did catch her raised eyebrow out of the corner of his eye.
"Well, pretty easy, but we lucked out and ended up on the left side of the forest, where only the tigers are, so all we had to do was focus on finding our password." Usagi answered before leaning down to pick up a rice ball. "By the way, what were you going to call me blondie?" She snipped in a friendly manner and Minato ducked.
"I was going to call you bunny, but I thought you might not appreciate it much at all." Minato answered still honest to a fault.
"Hmm, easy to remember and not to much of a sugary nickname, it's all right I like it just fine Arashi." She responded, and both subconsciously warmed at the atmosphere between them.
"Oh, I met whirlpool's princess in the forest." Minato chimed in, eager to spin his heroic adventures to his love interest. Usagi tilted her head in an eager notion but there was a slight bite of jealously in her heart. None the less, she appreciated any moment of rest and relaxation with her best friend and love interest. She immediately push those thoughts away and instead listened to Minato who sounded far too eager about the Whirlpool Kunoichi which made her loose any true interest in the tale. Smiling absently as she watched Minato lips move, she found herself to entranced with those organs and instead jerked her eyes away. Instead she locked eyes with the Hyuuga genin who raised an intrigued eyebrow; after all it was well-known that Usagi had no interest in any of the males, especially the popular ones, so it spurred his curiosity about why they were having an impromptu staring contest.
Not that Usagi was a clan oriented ninja or the daughter of any great ninja, nor did she have an awards to her skills and name, but it would be a great boon to any male genin to put her in her place. As she was gaining a reputation of being kind but untouchable, not quite an ice-princess yet, not to mention to rub it in the face of the Namikaze boy would be an excellent way of showing superiority to him. So the Hyuuga boy smirked his normal way, quite aware that the Namikaze boy noticed his friend's attention was elsewhere. Minato was awaiting a response to his tale and was surprised to find Usagi's attention was not focused on him, now Minato was not a mean soul, but he had never been ignored by the girl before. Annoyed he drew his eyes to what had caught his love's interest, and surprise upon surprise to see her locking eyes with the smug Hyuuga. Minato felt the bite of jealously and childishly moved into eye line of the two.
Usagi blinked out of her thoughts, unaware that she had a staring contest with the Hyuuga genin or even the fact that she completely ignored the person she was most close to, well male wise. Feeling angry when her eyes caught the red-haired woman from whirlpool enter the communal area she sighed, pushed her chair back and stomp off completely missing the situation she had just made. She just needed to dance she had too much energy and the emotional unresolved conflict filled her with nervous energy. Finding an open and empty room she pulled her overcoat free of its bindings, and began to dance.
Minato flinched as soon as he felt her angry energy; she had never gotten mad at him before for interceding in a staring contest, it made him nervous and jealous. Did she like that stuck-up jerk now; was he now catching onto his feelings too late? However, his musings did not let him rest on his heels, so he decided to ask his friend if she was interested in the Hyuuga genin, after all if it was a competition best to figure out who is competing first. Minato followed after her, and was rewarded by her coat in his arms as she danced into oblivion; he was unaware of two others following him. He was too busy enamored with the way Usagi moved in tuned with her body, it made him uncomfortable in the best way possible.
The Hyuuga boy watched with interest as the blond woman-child twist and spun in the greatest respect to a Hyuuga, to be able to flex and bend like that was in much interest of the jyuuken. Perhaps, since he was a branch member, he would be allowed to pursue such an endeavor, and he did not ignore the fact that she was growing into a beauty worthy of his attentions at least.
The other watcher was the red-haired warrior from whirlpool, she envied the way the girl moved, but she was a trained kunoichi warrior she had no time or taste for such things. Not to mention, she did not know what occurred between her blond rescuer and the girl, but she doubted the boy deserved the girl's anger. However, she did not like the look that was on the blond man-child's face whose concentration was firmly on the blond girl.
Minato felt his lips stick together, as Usagi swayed to the music only she could hear, until needing to find himself in her solitary world he stepped to intrude. Had he not caught sight of the Hyuuga boy doing so first, grounding his fist to his side, he instead opted to yell to the girl. His yell broke bunny from her dance and drew her attention to him. However, the peace and excitement he saw in her eyes made him want to envelope her into his arms as his own, his yearnings becoming dangerously strong. She sighed and dropped her stance to make her way over only to see the other two, once again the jealously chewed at her and she hugged him as she wished him good luck as she brushed past. Minato wanted to keep her to him, but he was jostled by the red-headed whirlpool princess, who bumped his elbow. Looking down at the red-head she crossed her arms and smirked with confidence.
"Hey blondie, you owe me a spar, after all, I would never stay in one's debt." She spoke and Minato mechanically nodded, even though he was more attentive to the one he hugged who had stiffened. "Name's Uzumaki Kushina, prepare to meet your maker, because you leaf genin are far too weak to topple me." She stated confidently. Minato sighed as Usagi immediately moved away; unfortunately ending up near Hyuuga he was trying to keep her away from as far as he was concerned.
It was a short and fairly brutal spar, Kushina giving just as good as she got, but Minato found very little enjoyment in this spar as he normally did with his blond. Seeing an open, he rushed hard and fast into the opening and put her down swiftly. Kushina blinked confused under the pin of his lean body, a kunai resting at her jugular which signaled the end of spar, until her female mind interrupted with its study of the situation. Blushing she yielded even though she was still surprised that he had managed to beat her, it made her excited, he could be her match. Usagi grew annoyed and she turned to the Hyuuga who had been studying both his companion and the fight evenly with an open smile.
"Hey, how about we go a round, I've got some energy to waste, unless of course you're worried you are going to dirty your precious dress?" She baited and the Hyuuga huffed but allowed her a nod, he was curious as well as how she would fair anyway.
Minato bit his lip as he saw the pair began to dance, even though they spared, efficiently trading blows here and there, but they looked untouchable and beautiful while doing so during the spar. This made him unsettled as he helped Kushina up, his eyes keeping close track of the Hyuuga's hand, not for fighting in concern, but because he knew Hyuugas were closet perverts. Minato was not going to allow any male to have an opportunity to touch his girl. He noted how much work his bunny put into her everyday routine and wished it was he on the receiving until a brutal strike got through the Hyuuga's guard. Usagi scored a solid hit on the collarbone jarring the Hyuuga, but it was the last hit she got in on him, but it had been an excellent strike.
Spinning out of the way of the swan-like strike the Hyuuga turned quickly and nailed the blond warrior in the shoulders. He had been impressed with her lasting ability, but still no amount of tai-chi was a match for jyuuken, and with a certain kindness, he struck out to tap her forehead, giving no boost of chakra behind it but she knew since he was a Hyuuga it could have been a killing strike. However she was in the middle of evade so when he brushed her forehead she lost balance, and for all actions he went to catch her, if not for a yellow flash. Sneering he noted as once more the Namikaze boy had interfered. Hizashi smirked though as after all it was much more fun with a challenge, and his brother Hiashi was all ready in a pre-arranged marriage so it was nice to have this one small freedom.
Usagi leaned back into the open arms of the one she trusted above all else, sure enough her fascination and admiration of the blond male had gone beyond into the realms of love. Which means after the chunin exams were done she would have to make sure to stake her claim, she wanted very little to do with competition. Nothing more was done as all four decided it was best to get some rest before the main matches. However, before Minato completely disappeared from her side, she caught hold of his arm, gulping she placed a nervous but friendly peck on the corner of his mouth just enough that it just managed to be friendly and not romantic. She did not know she left him with enough eager and happy energy to have done the chunin exams forty million times over and come out on top each time.
Minato could have died happy right there, but that would have left him vastly unfulfilled and kind of stunted at his life goals if he did such a thing. Yet, he acknowledged it was progress in a direction he wanted to take, and he turned to spout of the nonsense the sung praises on his tongue only to find her team's door finally shut and a brash and bashful red Kushina before him. Sighing he waved jauntily good-bye and practically skipped back to his own team's room, Chunin rank here he comes because there was no way he could loose now.
Sure enough the final matches went quickly in the battle tournament, Minato easily, well easily enough for him advancing through the matches. His feet hardly touched the floor as he practically flew on the gift of energy of that almost kiss. However, fate is fickle and he found his blues locked with the ocean of stars that was his girl's eyes. Yet, this was his time to shine for her, and to actually dance with her, for the cheers and the calls along with the sounds of anticipation and the pumping of his blood was their music. So they began to dance, outlasting several minutes of the precious millennium to those others striking never for there was always the tempting brushes. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on whose view it was Minato had the stamina and it was technically his turn to win again so sure enough he slipped inside her guard and caught her. His blade resting at her heart his other arm wrapped around her to keep her arms pinned. She closed her eyes exhausted and preparing for the knock out blow when she felt the blade drop. Surprised her eyes flashed open only for the hand that had held her at knife point now held her chin still. Amongst the millions of spectators and nobles, Minato Namikaze dipped his head down to claim her lips, and for the life of her she couldn't think of a more romantic setting and moment. Usagi always gave just as good as she got and responded to the tentative touch of the battle harden ninja, reserves be damned. Speeding the exposition along, it almost seems pointless to mention they both made chunin and the crowd had vastly enjoyed the show. To them it was enough of a dream come true, however unusual it might have been.